


Υια Χαρη Μου (For My Sake)

by Tshilaba



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-21
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-05-02 16:17:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5254979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tshilaba/pseuds/Tshilaba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are things we do for others. And then there are things that we must simply do for our own sake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Υια Χαρη Μου (For My Sake)

She bit her lip until she tasted blood. Over a year she'd put up with him. Over a year she'd tried her hardest to make him happy. And nothing was ever good enough.

_Even when I call him out on being an ass he just plays along with it. In his head, he'll always be right and everyone else will always be wrong. Crona doesn't need that kind of a parental figure..._

“Hey! Medusa! What the hell are you doing! Probably trying to get some guy out of the house before I find him, huh?”

The pencil she was holding snapped in two and the fragments clattered to her lab table. _Just kill him_ , the madness in her whispered. _Make him bleed. Make him hurt. Make him regret hurting you. Make him wish he'd never been born..._

“C'mon, bitch! It's Valentine's Day! Aren't you gonna show me a little love?” Noah said as he slammed the door open.

“Shut the hell up!” she snapped back. Her control was slipping. She scrambled to recover it, but her fuse was too frayed to be put out now.

“Don't tell me to shut up. You're only trying to cover your own damn ass just like you always do!”

“Bite me, you bastard!” she yelled angrily.

“Yeah, that's just what you'd want isn't it? That's what your little boyfriend does for you, huh?”

“I said shut up! You don't even know what you're talking about, you prick!”

“Oh, I'm a prick now, am I? Fucking cunt!”

Crona started crying in the nursery, frightened by the level of venom in his parents' voices.

“How am I a cunt? You completely ignore every goddamn thing I do for you!” she yelled, slamming him against the wall with her vector arrows.

“What do you do for me? Huh?” He spit blood onto the floor and struggled against the vectors. “You never blow me. You never want to have sex. All you ever wanted me for was to get you knocked up. You spend your days talking to those stupid ass snakes and lamenting about how Athena's turned away from you. Athena doesn't exist, you psychotic bitch! None of the gods do! All that exists is here and now!”

The blonde found herself breathing hard, her blood pounding in her ears. Underneath the rage, she felt the fear that had filled her the last time she'd let her madness have its way. When she'd dissected her own parents and nearly done the same to Shaula... She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. “You're right,” she said, willing herself to calm down. “I was wrong. It's Valentine's Day. Let's just forget this ever happened and have sex, okay?” The vectors eased away, retracting back. 

“Yeah...”

She held out her hand to him. _Just one more time I'll let him have his way..._

He passed out shortly after his orgasm. Typical. He never cared about her pleasure.

She got up and walked out of the room, walking into her lab and picking up a scalpel before slowly making her way back into the bedroom. She sat down on the edge of the bed. Absently, she began tracing random patterns across his bare skin, watching in awe as the bright red blood welled up in differing quantities with alterations in the pressure she applied to the blade.

Still, he slept soundly.

She frowned slightly. She had to cause him pain. She reached down, grasping his penis firmly in her left hand and raised the scalpel up...and cleanly sliced the member off at the base.

“FUCK!” He sat up quickly and her vectors slammed him back down against the mattress.

“Didn't I warn you that you would suffer the consequences if you forced me to fit your little model?”

“Bitch!” he spat.

Her lips pulled into a serpentine smile. “Perhaps I am. It doesn't matter.” She tightened the vectors until they tore through his tendons before allowing them to slither away to a fresh chorus of agony from the man she'd almost convinced herself she could love.

She leaned over him, forcing his chin up to bare his throat. “But I'm tired of hearing your pain. You never listened to mine anyway.” She ran the scalpel from one ear to the other, silencing her ex-lover into mere gurgles of paroxysm. Leaning down against his skin, she bit down hard on the already aching flesh causing his entire body to spasm. She pulled back, licking her lips contently. It was always a pleasure to cause another to feel the pain she had felt at their hands.

“Ohh...” She doubled over, her forehead nearly touching the mattress as her body trembled with a spasm of its own. Breathing hard, she looked back up at his disgusted face and laughed. “It figures. The one thing that would “get me off”, as you would say, would be seeing you bleed out.”

Noah writhed in pain once more, struggling to scream again, to cuss, anything.

Medusa snorted. “No matter how many ribbons and bells one tries to attach, an ass will never be a thoroughbred. At least I can rest easy knowing you'll never take the heart of another girl and tear it in front of her very eyes like you did to me. Burn in hell, you bastard.” She threw the scalpel down on the bed beside him and walked out.

Crona was sniffling again. He'd quieted down when his parents stopped arguing, but he was still fussing.

The blonde sighed and scooped her son up in her arms, rocking him gently as she held him to her chest. “Shh, it's alright. Mama's here.”

The pink-haired infant nuzzled against his mother's neck in search of comfort.

“I'm sorry about all the yelling earlier. Your father and I just had some issues to work out,” she murmured softly.

Crona stared up at her with those huge pale blue eyes for a moment before patting her chest.

She smiled softly. “Even if it may never happen, I'll make sure you know better than to hurt a girl and make her do things simply because she loves you. You're going to be a thoroughbred, not an ass like your father was.”

* * *

She sighed quietly. “Crona, tell me.”

“Yes, Lady Medusa?”

“What did I tell you about an ass?”

“An ass can never be a thoroughbred.”

“Why though? Are ya talkin' about that meister?”

She pursed her lips.

“Ya are! Why are ya comparin' him to Noah though? Are you sayin' he's well hung?”

“Ragnarok, shut up.” She turned back to her work.

“Lady Medusa...” The pink-haired teen trailed off nervously. They never discussed emotions like this. But he couldn't just stand there and watch his mother obviously in pain from whatever thought was currently in her mind. Or, at the very least, bothered by it. He swallowed hard and continued. “Exactly what are you saying about Stein?”

“I...”

“Are ya sayin' Crona's not a thoroughbred?”

“Ragnarok...”

“No, I'm not. When I say an ass will never be a thoroughbred I'm not referring to genetics. Nor am I implying that I think that Stein is well-endowed, though it is often the misconception that athletes are small while geniuses, or those colloquially referred to as “nerds”, are quite large. However, Stein has something that Noah does not.”

“Other than a mind?” the demon weapon snorted.

“ _Other_ than that, yes. Crona, a mare will mate so long as she's in heat, correct?”

“Y-yes. Horses have coitus solely for the purpose of procreation. Snakes, on the other hand, will refuse a mate if she dislikes them, even if conditions are suitable for gestation.”

“So wait...then you just let--”

“Let me tell you both something. I convinced myself to love Noah solely for Crona's sake. And all Noah did was use me as a sex toy. I have more self-respect than to allow that to happen again. _No_ man will cross me again."

“But you killed Noah, so he can't hurt someone else.”

“I destroyed his physical body, yes. Once I let him bleed out, I burned everything, including the bed itself. I left no trace of him in this world. But he still lives on in the Book of Eibon.”

“Oh...”

“I'd like to finish this experiment in peace, please.”

Crona nodded and left the room.

* * *

She couldn't believe she was doing this. She was on the dance floor with him. His hand holding hers, his hand resting against her shoulder blades on her bare skin. She looked down nervously at her feet. _If Eruka sees me like this..._ She almost gasped. She couldn't go through with the plan. Not when there was a thoroughbred standing less than a foot from her. _Call it off!_ she snapped.

_What? Why?_

_Because I said so._

_But Medusa--_

_Do not question me._

She felt Eruka cry out in pain as the snakes writhed between her organs and had to refrain from smiling just a bit. _Call it off_ , she said again.

_Y-yes...I'll find Free and Crona..._

She sighed. _That's that..._ She glanced up when she realized Stein was saying something. “Stein, I...”

“What is it?”

She stared at him for a moment before leaning up and pressing a kiss to his lips. It was chaste, dry—far better than any Noah had ever given her, a small part of her insisted—and brief. She pulled back once her snake had slithered inside him. She glanced up into his eyes, olive staring back into her golden ones. “I think I might love you,” she mumbled softly.

His eyebrow cocked slightly. “Pardon?”

“It's...complicated,” she said. “I can tell you if you're willing to listen though.”

“That still doesn't tell me what happened to Sid. He was looking into _your_ lab.”

“So I'm protective of my research. Are you telling me you wouldn't want to prevent someone from nosing into your experiments?”

“You are aware that Lord Death believes you are a witch.”

She felt her heart thud in her chest. This could all fall apart in front of her very eyes. “Give me a chance to explain myself. I'll tell you everything, I swear.” She searched his eyes, surprised to find herself praying that he would allow her that one thing.

“Sid...”

“He's fine, I assure you. My security system wouldn't kill him.” _Eruka was nosy enough to prove that..._

“Very well. After this, perhaps I could ask you to come to my lab so that we can discuss this at length without distraction.”

She nodded. “As you wish.”

* * *

“Coffee?”

“Fine, two spoons of sugar and one of cream, please,” she responded.

He nodded. As he began mixing the coffee, he said “So you were saying?”

“Oh, yes..." _I'm glad Eruka at least had the intelligence to restrain Sid. I don't need him betraying my cover before I choose to do so myself._

“What was that about your feelings for me?”

She felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. The way he said it... There was a subtlety to the disbelief in it. So similar to Noah... “Maybe it's not love...what's the word Spirit would use...”

“Hot?”

“I suppose... I'll admit a part of me wants coitus...”

Stein snorted derisively. “Sex is such a messy and unnecessary thing.”

She had to laugh. “It is, yes. But everyone has a sex drive. Even those who do not wish to have it.” _It's what drove Arachne and Shaula to masturbate at such an early age. For so long I was grateful not to derive pleasure from sex..._

“It's true.” He smirked as she gasped softly as he came behind her and pulled her back against his chest. “Even I'll admit to it.”

She whimpered softly as she felt his hand slide under her dress, pressing lightly between her legs.

Her snakes writhed madly inside her, trying desperately to distract her to no avail.

He pressed a little harder, rubbing around her clitoral hood with his thumb before shifting the pressure to his entire palm.

Medusa couldn't help but moan quietly. She recognized what was happening to her body, even after nearly sixteen years. The combined effect of him nibbling on her earlobe and palming her breasts with his hand still between her legs sent her into orgasmic bliss. She felt her Soul Protect break with the momentary loss of concentration and felt her heart sink in her chest.

“I knew it.”

The heaviness of those words cut to her very soul. “D-don't...” she whimpered. “Please, don't be just like Noah...” She slid from his arms and collapsed to her knees, sobs shaking her body, the wetness of her panties already chilling like the storm she sensed coming between them.

Stein frowned. He'd expected anger, perhaps even violence at being manipulated into revealing herself. But not this.

“An a-ass can never be a thor-roughb-bred...”

“Wait, what the hell are you talking about? Medusa?” He grabbed her wrists and pulled her gently upright. “Tell me what's wrong. Who's Noah?”

“C-crona's biological f-father...” she sniffled, trying to dry her tears. “I tried to love him, for Crona's sake, but he...he never wanted me for anything more than sex... The only time I ever got an orgasm while he was alive was when I watched him bleed out...”

“Crona?”

“Crona's my son.”

“I see...so, Noah?”

“An ass. I tried to make him into a thoroughbred. After a year, I decided to prevent him from ever hurting another woman the way he hurt me...”

“Medusa, I...” Those now-amber eyes still wet with tears and shimmering with so much pain glanced up into his own. He sighed heavily. “I shouldn't have done that to you. Forcing you to orgasm just to break your Soul Protect was...something only an ass would do. You've been through too much pain to be put through that again.” _Marie used to tell me that everyone deserved to be happy. And the ones who went through hell deserved it most of all. Witch or not, I can see that Medusa's been through that. It's in her eyes. It's why she looks away when she tries to hide what she's feeling..._ Acting almost subconsciously, he cupped her face in his hands gently, wiping the few rogue tears from her cheeks. He leaned down and kissed her gently.

She moaned softly, pressing close and tugging lightly at his shirt, savoring every moment until he pulled away, leaving her panting quietly and staring back into his eyes longingly. The yearning she felt for him was nearly unbearable. If he rejected her...she couldn't think of that.

“Medusa...tell me what you want.”

She sighed softly, reaching up to touch his face hesitantly. “I... I want you,” she whispered quietly. “Maybe it's just lust and not love. I only know it's different than what I ever felt for Noah...” She gasped when he kissed her once more, sliding her arms loosely around his neck and lightly tangling her fingers in his hair, closing her eyes and letting the world slide away.

After a few moments he pulled away, leaning close to her ear. “I know you don't want an ass,” he whispered. “And I can't promise that I could ever be a thoroughbred. But if you want someone to satisfy your sex drive, I can suit that purpose for now.”

She whined softly as his breath played across her ear lightly. “Even knowing what I am?” she breathed. “Can you really commit to that?”

He pulled back, staring at her with an unreadable expression for a moment. “Yes,” he said simply.

She tightened her grip in his hair, pulling him back, on top of her as her back hit the floor, into a bruising and passionate kiss that left them breathless as he pulled back briefly. She watched him wet his lips as his eyes drifted down to her chest, heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. Noah's eyes on her had always made her feel as if her skin was crawling, but Stein's eyes...something about them made her feel as if he would honestly one day be capable of admiring her body as simple and exquisite as it was. Which was more than Noah had ever managed with his empty praises.

“This floor is uncomfortable. Let's move to my room.”

She snorted softly, ghosting her fingertips along the curve of the screw. “I had sex on every imaginable surface in my house when Noah was alive. A floor is nothing.”

When he was alive? What the hell happened? “Still, I don't believe your frame can support my own. And I can safely say that my spine will hurt like hell if I perform any coital acts on this floor.”

She laughed quietly at that statement. Noah had never let her ride him. He'd always believed it was emasculating to let the woman take control of sex. Not like it really mattered either way; it was always for his pleasure and never hers. “Not as flexible?” she taunted.

“You've also had a child, Medusa. Your flexibility is easily higher than mine.”

She leaned up and licked his nose playfully. “I know, Stein.” She smiled softly. “I don't mind either way. Just don't feel like you have treat me like a delicate Grecian urn, okay?”

“So I can damage this pretty little body of yours without regrets?”

The glint that flashed through his eyes at that statement sent a small chill down her spine while simultaneously arousing her all the more. _I really am a masochist..._ “There should be _some_ limits, don't you think?”

He chuckled darkly. “Darling, you're of too much value to me to kill you just yet.”

She whined softly, lifting one of her legs to brush against his groin and smirked as he groaned quietly at the contact. “Then I guess I should keep being valuable to you, hmm?”

“Get up and get in that bedroom before I tear your clothes off right here,” he panted quietly, almost as if he was straining to keep his composure.

“Oh, but if you tear my clothes, however will I go home?”

“Medusa...” He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood to withhold a moan as she rubbed her knee against his groin again.

She leaned up and licked the trail of blood away, feeling him shiver against her. “I rather enjoy having you above me, but if we must move, you'll have to get up first~”

* * *

She perched herself on the counter as she watched him cooking something he refused to tell her what it would turn out to be. He'd already swatted her off of the counter twice, though the sharp smacks to her ass had only made her want to be there all the more, so he finally relented and let her stay there, dressed in nothing but one of his shirts, the tail of which and ridden up to barely come past her hips. “So...”

“What?”

“Didn't you want me here so that I could tell you everything?”

“You're the one who promised to tell me,” he returned evenly, not looking up from his work.

“True... Where would you like me to start?”

“Why not start with what Noah was to you?”

“Jealous, are we?” she asked.

“I have no reason to be jealous of an ass,” he answered emotionlessly. “I just think that as your current outlet for your sex drive I deserve to know how much baggage you're dragging along with you.”

She pouted slightly. “Fair enough...” She sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I needed his genetics for an experiment of mine. It's been proven that children develop best in two parent homes, so I figured it would be in our child's best interest if I kept the biological father around and learned to love him. But he never cared for me, or for Crona. Even if my first intention with him was to have him impregnate me, I would have thought that he would at least have some feeling for me. Even if that feeling only came after sex...”

“So it is true that men tend to bond through sex, while women tend to require a bond before they can enjoy sex?”

“To some extent. Though, like with every rule, there are always exceptions. It was just my luck to find a man that didn't consider women anything more than a thing to thrust into when he needed release.

But...I had to put up with it for Crona's sake. I tried, I truly did. But not long after I conceived Crona, and it took me nearly a quarter of a year to convince him to accomplish that, he changed.”

“How so?” For the first time since he'd began cooking, he turned and looked at her.

She swallowed hard. “He'd doted on me before...always calling me beautiful...saying that sex without love was nothing but sex and was pointless because of that... But after I conceived Crona, he started accusing me of cheating on him. He wasn't convinced Crona was his child. He tried to say I got knocked up just to keep him around. And, shortly after Crona was born, he left.”

“Why?”

“He said he was tired of me never being affectionate or doing anything for him...even if I was trying my very damnedest to open up to him... So, I begged him to come back. I said I'd do anything he wanted, no matter what it was. I'd be the perfect girlfriend and lover. But he'd have to deal with the consequences...”

“Consequences?”

“I'm not a very open person. Even when I was very little, I was independent. While my sisters loved to cling to our parents and constantly shower them with childlike affection, I preferred to curl up in a corner and read by myself. I shied away from affection any chance I could get. I wanted nothing more than to be left alone. I abhorred being touched at all, and being touched more than necessary was honestly nauseating to me. So being expected to be all but attached to his hip...”

“It's like asking a rabbit to trade its cotton tail and long ears for a pair of pointed ones and a bushy tail and chase its kin.”

“Essentially, yes. But I did it for Crona's sake. At least, as best as I could. I tried to fake it as much as possible, but... He never let me get aroused enough for penetration, so I often ended up curled up in the nursery while he passed out, cradling Crona to help him sleep, with blood trickling down my legs from where my vaginal wall had torn and split. He didn't care that he was causing me pain, so long as I fit the mold of a “perfect” girlfriend...”

“So you were so tight...”

“Because quite a bit of that is scar tissue now. It may regain some of its original flexibility eventually. But I can't really complain since my masochistic side kind of enjoys the pain.” She chuckled lightly. “I haven't told you the _best_ part yet,” she said, a sarcastic tone to her voice.

“Oh?” He turned back to the stove to finish cooking. “So what is the best part?”

“He left again, about a week and a half before Valentine's Day. I'd had enough, truthfully. If he was willing to walk out on me just because I didn't jump in bed every time he wanted sex--”

“Then he could go fuck himself for what it was worth.”

She laughed so hard she almost fell off of the counter. Righting herself, she said “Exactly. But on Valentine's Day he came back, accusing me of cheating again.”

“You know, they say that the bit dog barks the loudest,” Stein mused. “In practice, it means that the guilty one is normally the accuser.”

“I know. But regardless of whether or not he cheated on me, I'd had enough of being accused of cheating on him... I almost killed him while we were arguing. Crona was screaming and crying, he was petrified... I wanted to end it as quickly as I could...but...”

“Sometimes, mere death is not enough. It's only human to wish for those who hurt you to experience every ounce of pain they exposed you to.”

“Yes... So I collected myself and gave him sex one last time. And after he passed out, I went about slicing into him. But even that wasn't enough to wake him. So--”

“Don't tell me.”

“What? I thought you wanted to know.”

“Forgive me if my penis and testicles feel sympathy for the removal of another man's even if I fully agree that the man deserved to lose them.”

Medusa couldn't contain her laughter at the statement and collapsed to the floor in a fit of uncontrollable elation. “Oh...d-dear Athena...” she giggled, helplessly clutching her stomach.

“What on earth is wrong with you?” he asked incredulously.

She sat up, wiping the gleeful tears from her eyes as she caught her breath. “Is that rather akin to how a woman feels sympathy for another who's just received a kick to the ovaries?”

“Yes, actually,” he replied, holding his hand out to her and helping her to her feet. “Even if you agree that they deserved it, you can imagine the pain all too well to be immune to cringing, if only a little, at the thought.”

“Heh...” She pulled herself back onto the counter, reaching out one foot to tease him with the tips of her toes. “Are you sure it isn't simply a residual ache from our fun just a short while ago?” she taunted, smirking up at him.

He caught her foot easily. “Oh, no. You see, that particular 'pain' is quite enjoyable. Rather like this is for you, dear.” He ran a fingertip across the sole of her foot, causing her to squirm and giggle softly.

“Stein...”

“Hmm?”

“Kiss me?” she asked.

He pulled her against his body, kissing her softly as she tangled her fingers in his hair and tugged lightly as she moaned against his mouth. Breaking away to the sound of her needy whine, he moved down, kissing along her jawline and down the side of her neck. He paused when she whimpered softly. “What is it?”

“D-don't stop,” she insisted. “It feels too good.”

“Medusa, I honestly don't believe I have the ability to fuck you senseless every time you get just the slightest bit horny.” He pulled back a little and rested his forehead against hers. “And we most certainly cannot do this around the students.”

She trailed her fingers down his neck and chest before tightening them in the material of his shirt and pulling him close. “I'll blow you if you eat me now,” she whispered.

That dangerous glint passed through his eyes once again. “It's amazing what dirty things can come out of that pretty little mouth.”

“Play your cards right and I can show you what other dirty things this pretty mouth is capable of,” she replied, digging her nails into his chest for a moment.

“The kitchen is really not the place for coitus, Medusa.”

She let go of his shirt and looked away. “That must be how he felt...”

Stein sighed. “After we eat, okay? My body is yours the second the kitchen is no longer a fire threat, alright?”

“Okay,” she mumbled absently, slipping under his arm and walking out of the room.

* * *

_Maybe Noah was right_ , she thought sadly, curled up on the couch with her knees pulled tight against her chest. _Maybe I really am just a contradictory bitch..._ She jumped slightly when she felt Stein pull her against his body and she bit down a moan as his hands slid down her legs. 

He stopped. “What's wrong?” he said.

“It's nothing.”

“Bullshit. Just twenty minutes ago your ardor for sex was bordering senseless. Now it's like none of my touches arouse you. So what's wrong?”

She shook her head, biting her lip.

“Medusa...am I going to have to spank you to solicit a response?”

She shook her head and gasped a little when she tasted blood.

He reached over and wiped it away gently. “You said you never had an orgasm until you let Noah bleed to death. That implies that you have to trust a person in order to enjoy sex with them. Doesn't that mean you trust me?”

“I...I was just thinking about something Noah said...about how I was a contradictory bitch...”

“You're honestly going to dwell on something that asshole tried to tell you?” He sighed irritably and grabbed her chin. “If this is about earlier I wasn't mad at you. Alright? So stop dwelling on what that sonuva bitch told you and focus on what _I'm_ telling you now, on how it feels when I touch you, and how you feel about me. That's what's important, dammit."

She smiled slightly. “Okay.”

“Now here.” He patted his lap. “Why don't we just forget about the rest of the world for a while?”

She nodded and crawled onto his lap as he pulled her hips against him. Leaning forward against him and burying her face into the crook of his neck, she nuzzled against his jugular vein.

He slipped a hand down in between them, brushing his fingertips lightly against his lover's clitoris and drawing a breathy moan from her. “You like that?” he whispered.

In response, she bit down lightly on the skin spread over his jugular vein, teasing the vessel out gently and playing with it with her tongue causing him to groan and thrust his hips up into her own, pressing his fingers inside of her. She let out a startled gasp that changed into a moan as it passed her lips, tangling her fingers in his hair and pressing her hips down in a weak attempt to get him deeper inside of her.

He chuckled softly. “So you like having my fingers inside you, huh?”

“Uh-huh...” She whined as he stilled her hips with his free hand. “Stein...”

“Come on now. Don't I get a little fun?” He wiggled his fingers briefly causing her to moan loudly as her forehead fell against his shoulder. He chuckled quietly and let go of her hip while pressing his fingers deeper inside her and brushing against her cervix, pulling a soft whimper from her lips. “Now I know exactly how to torture you,” he taunted, pressing his palm upward as he curled his fingers inward.

“Nnggh... No fair,” she panted, unable to resist wiggling her hips slightly to get more friction.

“You know you love it.” His fingertip brushed against a slightly rougher surface on her vaginal wall and the shuddering moan it dragged from her confirmed his suspicions. _That's her g-spot_. He scraped his nail lightly across it, feeling her tighten unintentionally around his fingers.

“S-stein...I want you in me,” she gasped. “P-please...”

He could feel her heart racing as it pounded against his chest. “Alright,” he consented. “Lift yourself up.”

She nodded weakly and raised her hips up, letting him ease her back down onto him. “Ohhh....” She leaned closer to him, rolling her hips against his and trying to get him as deep as she could. “So good...” she mumbled against his skin, tugging his hair hard enough to pull his head back as she bit down around his Adam's apple.

He growled softly and thrust his hips up against hers roughly, causing her to moan weakly as her orgasm shuddered through her.

She fell limp against his chest, panting hard and feeling just the slightest bit lightheaded as she came down from her high. She whimpered quietly as he lifted her off of him, but he shushed her gently with a tender kiss.

“You're exhausted,” he murmured softly. “Just rest, okay?”

“Mm...” She nuzzled his cheek briefly before closing her eyes and falling into a deep sleep.

* * *

Nearly a month later, they had settled into a comfortable way of life. She'd slowly opened up to him, and he to her. He came to understand her moods almost better than she did herself. She often traveled between their labs to keep an eye on Crona; she believed it was too much hassle to bring him around Death City.

Late one Friday evening, Stein came in to find the lab dark and quiet. _Odd..._ He checked the desk and found it devoid of notes, meaning she hadn't left for her lab. _So she must be sleeping. She didn't seem like she wasn't feeling well earlier, though..._

About two weeks previous, she'd set up an altar in one of the unused rooms. She'd never openly invited him to join her in her rituals, and he'd never pressed her to allow him. That was her private space.

But, just this once, he decided to check it.

As he drew closer to the curtain separated the room from the rest of the lab, he heard a soft sniffling sound, almost as if she were crying. “Medusa?”

“...Lady Athena, I beg you, please, forgive me...” She had her eyes closed as she knelt before a single lit cerulean blue candle. After a moment she leaned forward and blew it out.

He switched the light on causing her to jump.

“S-stein?” She hurried to wipe the tears away. “I didn't realize you were going to be home so soon...”

“Medusa, it's after 8 o'clock,” he said as he crossed the room to sit down beside her.

“Oh...”

“What's wrong?”

She shook her head.

He sighed and slipped his arm arm around her waist, pulling her against him as she nuzzled his chest hesitantly. “You know I know you better than that. You only cry when you're overcome with emotion.”

She sighed, gripping his shirt tightly. “It still feels like she hates me...”

“What are you talking about?”

“My family used to say that being incarnated as a witch was Medusa's soul's punishment for betraying her goddess' trust. And they always ridiculed me for desiring to worship Athena....but then _I_ betrayed her...”

“I'm sure she understands why you conceived Crona--”

“No.” She shook her head. “It's the fact that I'm still betraying her...and I just can't stop...”

“Hey...look at me.”

She looked up, biting her lip as if she were struggling to hold the tears back.

“Even virgin goddesses fell in love.”

“You know that's not what I mean.”

He sighed and pulled her into a tight embrace. “I know. But I also know she loves you. Regardless of how many times you fail her.”

“How?” she sniffled quietly. “How can anyone love someone like that?”

“Isn't that how you feel about Crona?”

“I...” She frowned. “You're right. But I still don't understand it.”

“Perhaps love isn't supposed to be understood. Maybe even the gods don't understand it.”

She snorted softly. “And you call me a blasphemer,” she scolded playfully.


End file.
